Piracy: 18% of French people watched sporting events illegally in 2024 (Arcom)

62% of French people watched live sport and 18% did so illegally in 2024, compared with 19% in 2023, according to the study "Illicit consumption of sports programmes in 2024" by Arcom published on 14/05/2025.

Of those who pirated sports broadcasts, 16% did so via live streaming sites, while 12% accessed content via illegal IPTV. "Furthermore, the propensity of spectators who use illegal means to also subscribe to legal pay-TV services remains high: 60% of them pay for sports services, twice as many as the average French person (32%, down slightly on 2023)," according to the regulatory authority. While 44% of French people have watched football competitions, 12% have done so illegally, according to the study. "The top 12 most illegally consumed competitions involve football."

Arcom blocked 4,212 illicit sports domain names illegally broadcasting sports competitions in 2024, compared with 2,086 in 2023, according to the Authority. Of these 4,212 blocks, 415 were in response to court injunctions and the remaining 3,797 (+146% vs 2023) via notifications from Arcom. In total, 10,006…